bluehorse wrote:Between Amazon’s 25,000 and Google’s 12,000 new employees, downtown JC will definitively be effected. Even if Amazon employees don’t end up living in JC, they will displace some people who will.

NYC grows by at least 100k per year -- and not all of the Amazon jobs will be filled by people moving to NYC. In fact, a big reason for Amazon picking NYC is to hire people who are already in NYC, or already planning to move to NYC. I.e. we won't see 37,000 new people house hunting in JSQ next weekend.

Plus, whatever the impact is, it will be spread over literally millions of housing units. JC is 5-8 miles and two rivers (or: 1 hour on two strained train systems) away from LIC. That distance covers huge swaths of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Hoboken, parts of the so-called Gold Coast....

The biggest impact will obviously be on LIC -- which is already undergoing a housing boom. Again, it's been gentrifying and building for years now. Over 1400 units were approved this year for LIC, and that was before HQ2.5 was announced.

I assume most of those new units will be aimed squarely at those high income earners; and since DTJC is already gentrified and other PATH-adjacent areas are already on their way, unfortunately I don't think there is much room for those pushed out by rising prices.

I cheerily admit I prefer this kind of narrative to the "OMG we're in a bubble we will all be underwater on our mortgages next week!!!" But overall, I expect the effects on JC will be indirect and small.

If Amazon had selected Newark, that would be a completely different story.

Community boards are each composed of up to 50 volunteer members appointed by the local borough president, half from nominations by City Council members representing the community district (i.e., whose council districts cover part of the community district). Each community board is led by a district manager, with an office and staff, whose primary purpose is to coordinate the delivery of services to the community. Non-board members may also join or work on board committees. Each borough also has a borough board, composed of the borough president, council members from the borough, and the chairperson of each community board in the borough.

IMHO Amazon HQ2 will barely make a dent on JC RE. The boom will go to various parts of queens, nassau county with LIRR access and anywhere with East ferry river access. LIC is also seeing a flood of new devs inventory by 2020.

Google expansion will impact JC somewhat due to proximity but dtjc also has lots of rental inventory to absorb this. otoh google office is accessible by many subway lines all over nyc.

dr_nick_riviera wrote:Thankfully NYC just passed a measure to get all the old, white NIMBYs off their community boards (term limits), so it should be easier to get more stuff built in the future. Hopefully Jersey City does the same and completely neuters the NA's and Yvonnes in the future.

Have you ever attended or joined a JC NA? JC NA's have nowhere near the power of NYCs CB's. They have no official powers but are simply nonprofit orgs, while CBs are essentially a part of city govt. NA's only power is being organized and getting heard. There have been several times to my knowledge there have been competing NA's in the same area.

Between Amazon’s 25,000 and Google’s 12,000 new employees, downtown JC will definitively be effected. Even if Amazon employees don’t end up living in JC, they will displace some people who will. I know the Google story is not getting much press but it impacts JC more—their new office will be right across from Newport.https://gizmodo.com/oh-good-google-is- ... resence-in-1830300276/amp

bodhipooh wrote:The JC to Queens commute is not great, with both the PATH *and* the E/R trains getting very crowded.

Several of my clients moved from the garment center to LIC. Honestly, the travel time is the same since I'm not fighting my way to walk 1/2 mile through the crowded midtown streets. So, can JC be worth the extra fare to commute to LIC? Given that an unlimited Smartlink card is $1000/yr, you can easily save that in 2 months of rent over equivalent areas of Queens. Transferring at 23rd street to the F is a snap.

I'll also point out that outdoor recreation opportunities were on that list of requirements. I guess they downgraded it, but getting to the Catskills or Poconos is FAR easier from JC than Queens, one reason we moved here rather than Brooklyn 20 years ago.

I had a client make almost the exact same move. My travel time nearly doubled. So did my travel costs.

"Fighting you way through the streets?" Really?

LIC has also gentrified quite a bit in the past 10-15 years, with lots of housing and amenities already in the pipeline. LIC will be almost completely transformed by the time HQ 2½ is up and running.

Jersey City would be pretty low on the list if I landed a high-paying job in LIC today.

a salary of $100,000 only goes so far. just ask people in sn francisco and silicon valley...PLUS, hq 2.5 is expected to generate an additional 37,000 indirect jobs.....those people will need to live somewhere too. i read somewhere that ny metro population is expected to grow by 1 million over next decade..

1 million in the next decade? Do you have a source for that? The most recent statistic I read, they weren't expecting NYC's population to hit 9 million until 2030...we're pushing 8.7 million in 2018.

No doubt there's going to be a dire, dire need for more housing in all regions of the NYC metro area. Thankfully NYC just passed a measure to get all the old, white NIMBYs off their community boards (term limits), so it should be easier to get more stuff built in the future. Hopefully Jersey City does the same and completely neuters the NA's and Yvonnes in the future.

bodhipooh wrote:The JC to Queens commute is not great, with both the PATH *and* the E/R trains getting very crowded.

Several of my clients moved from the garment center to LIC. Honestly, the travel time is the same since I'm not fighting my way to walk 1/2 mile through the crowded midtown streets. So, can JC be worth the extra fare to commute to LIC? Given that an unlimited Smartlink card is $1000/yr, you can easily save that in 2 months of rent over equivalent areas of Queens. Transferring at 23rd street to the F is a snap.

I'll also point out that outdoor recreation opportunities were on that list of requirements. I guess they downgraded it, but getting to the Catskills or Poconos is FAR easier from JC than Queens, one reason we moved here rather than Brooklyn 20 years ago.

I had a client make almost the exact same move. My travel time nearly doubled. So did my travel costs.

"Fighting you way through the streets?" Really?

LIC has also gentrified quite a bit in the past 10-15 years, with lots of housing and amenities already in the pipeline. LIC will be almost completely transformed by the time HQ 2½ is up and running.

Jersey City would be pretty low on the list if I landed a high-paying job in LIC today.

a salary of $100,000 only goes so far. just ask people in sn francisco and silicon valley...PLUS, hq 2.5 is expected to generate an additional 37,000 indirect jobs.....those people will need to live somewhere too. i read somewhere that ny metro population is expected to grow by 1 million over next decade..

Dolomiti wrote:I had a client make almost the exact same move. My travel time nearly doubled. So did my travel costs.

"Fighting you way through the streets?" Really?

Try DTJC to 21st & 21st in LIC vs 8th & 39th in googlemaps. Only a few minutes different. YMMV. And yes, trying to walk through the fucking gawking tourists between Herald sq and Times Sq is like combat.

The extra cost is what it is, but there's much worse commutes entirely within NYC. There's even parts of Astoria & Jackson Heights that would take about 40 min to get to the LIC waterfront, but cost a lot more than DTJC. And if you're trying to get to your weekend house in the hills, add at least an hour driving, more depending on when.

bodhipooh wrote:The JC to Queens commute is not great, with both the PATH *and* the E/R trains getting very crowded.

Several of my clients moved from the garment center to LIC. Honestly, the travel time is the same since I'm not fighting my way to walk 1/2 mile through the crowded midtown streets. So, can JC be worth the extra fare to commute to LIC? Given that an unlimited Smartlink card is $1000/yr, you can easily save that in 2 months of rent over equivalent areas of Queens. Transferring at 23rd street to the F is a snap.

I'll also point out that outdoor recreation opportunities were on that list of requirements. I guess they downgraded it, but getting to the Catskills or Poconos is FAR easier from JC than Queens, one reason we moved here rather than Brooklyn 20 years ago.

I had a client make almost the exact same move. My travel time nearly doubled. So did my travel costs.

"Fighting you way through the streets?" Really?

LIC has also gentrified quite a bit in the past 10-15 years, with lots of housing and amenities already in the pipeline. LIC will be almost completely transformed by the time HQ 2½ is up and running.

Jersey City would be pretty low on the list if I landed a high-paying job in LIC today.

something else to consider..would you really want to be living next to/around the same people you see at work everyday? not me. it would be very hard to use all those sick days? you can't blame the subway or PATH or LIRR or NJ transit if you oversleep.

bodhipooh wrote:The JC to Queens commute is not great, with both the PATH *and* the E/R trains getting very crowded.

Several of my clients moved from the garment center to LIC. Honestly, the travel time is the same since I'm not fighting my way to walk 1/2 mile through the crowded midtown streets. So, can JC be worth the extra fare to commute to LIC? Given that an unlimited Smartlink card is $1000/yr, you can easily save that in 2 months of rent over equivalent areas of Queens. Transferring at 23rd street to the F is a snap.

I'll also point out that outdoor recreation opportunities were on that list of requirements. I guess they downgraded it, but getting to the Catskills or Poconos is FAR easier from JC than Queens, one reason we moved here rather than Brooklyn 20 years ago.

JC will get a few crumbs. I'm not so sure that most Amazon will employees will want to live in Queens, especially with rising prices. If New Jersey had its second tunnel, maybe it could have attracted more crumbs. Who wants to deal with constant train disruptions? I read somewhere that NY is even thinking about extending the "planned" 2Nd Hudson River train tunnel under the East River. transportation options/redundancies for a growing megacity is a good thing

I don't expect this will have a big impact on JC, though it is plausible that some people who will be priced out of LIC/Queens could move to affordable parts of JC.

Depending on where exactly in LIC they go, the WTC PATH has a direct connection to the E and R lines, which go right to the Queensboro Plaza area. I think the region as a whole will benefit, including Downtown JC, as not every one of those 25k employees is going to want to live in Queens.

My thoughts exactly. These things do not operate in a vacuum. I would be very happy if I owned rental property near a PATH train stop right now.

I don't expect this will have a big impact on JC, though it is plausible that some people who will be priced out of LIC/Queens could move to affordable parts of JC.

Depending on where exactly in LIC they go, the WTC PATH has a direct connection to the E and R lines, which go right to the Queensboro Plaza area. I think the region as a whole will benefit, including Downtown JC, as not every one of those 25k employees is going to want to live in Queens.

Mostly true, about many people not wanting to live in Queens, but both Astoria and LIC have seen incredible growth over the past few years. They can probably attract a large chunk of the people getting hired by Amazon. The JC to Queens commute is not great, with both the PATH *and* the E/R trains getting very crowded.

I don't expect this will have a big impact on JC, though it is plausible that some people who will be priced out of LIC/Queens could move to affordable parts of JC.

Depending on where exactly in LIC they go, the WTC PATH has a direct connection to the E and R lines, which go right to the Queensboro Plaza area. I think the region as a whole will benefit, including Downtown JC, as not every one of those 25k employees is going to want to live in Queens.

Well, until the official announcement is made (possibly later today) nothing is a sure thing.

One of the Amazon VPs in charge of the process lost his shit over Crystal City officials leaking information to the press (certain details made it clear the leaks were coming from government officials involved in the talks) and there is/was a chance they could have changed the specifics of the actual location within Arlington.

There was no affordable housing when the Dutch and English and yes, some of my ancestors were here since both parents have some native American blood. My mother, can claim Chatow and my father can claim, Cheyenne.

RichMauro wrote:It's really too bad that JC won't get the nod, but I really believe that the voracious appetite of the politicians in New Jersey would set off alarms with Bezo's search crew.Well, at least we've got a hundred marijuana stores opening soon with a projected billion in taxes generating. That should help the financing of government somewhat.

I truly hope that last line was an attempt at sarcasm. New Jersey will not be seeing a windfall of billions due to legalized weed any time soon, or ever. The way things are playing out, it seems like NYS will beat NJ to legalization.

Do you understand that there is a difference between legalization of recreational marijuana use and legal medical marijuana? The latter is already a reality, while the former is the type of legislation that could bring tax revenue.

RichMauro wrote:It's really too bad that JC won't get the nod, but I really believe that the voracious appetite of the politicians in New Jersey would set off alarms with Bezo's search crew.Well, at least we've got a hundred marijuana stores opening soon with a projected billion in taxes generating. That should help the financing of government somewhat.

I truly hope that last line was an attempt at sarcasm. New Jersey will not be seeing a windfall of billions due to legalized weed any time soon, or ever. The way things are playing out, it seems like NYS will beat NJ to legalization.

RichMauro wrote:It's really too bad that JC won't get the nod, but I really believe that the voracious appetite of the politicians in New Jersey would set off alarms with Bezo's search crew.Well, at least we've got a hundred marijuana stores opening soon with a projected billion in taxes generating. That should help the financing of government somewhat.

I truly hope that last line was an attempt at sarcasm. New Jersey will not be seeing a windfall of billions due to legalized weed any time soon, or ever. The way things are playing out, it seems like NYS will beat NJ to legalization.